Oddbean

It all started when @jack posted this: nostr:note1srgru54d8mtkesq0zpx5vrjau0pfpluy73uzy7nxzqe6ywlhkgdq8r4rn7 I recalled that I had some of those tea tree tooth picks once upon a time which I thoroughly enjoyed. But what was the deal with this gum? Mastic gum. Sounded familiar but couldn't put my finger on it. I had recently gotten back into chewing gum, and I liked the idea of going the lindy route and consuming natural things. To top it off, the @Olympus Gum account appeared on nostr shortly after jack's quasi-endorsement so I checked out the website. Very tempting, though it seemed pretty expensive for gum, even with the bitcoin discount. But can you really put too high of a price on having the jawline of a Greek god? It was having a cultural moment on nostr and I decided to be a part of it. Nostriches can be independent-minded but we also love a good bandwagon, and I was ready to hop on and take the ride. Excited by its arrival in the post at the end of my lunch break, I quickly excavated the product tin and popped it open. Looks and smells more like incense than juicy fruit. Promising. And just like that the first little glorious piece passed between my lips. A Rough Beginning - This may have been my great-grandfather's chewing gum, but it hardly resembles the Bubble Yum of my youth. Maybe a slight resemblance to rock hard Bazooka Joe but without the little comic. It is very hard at first and if you try to chew it too quickly, you may come to regret it when it shatters into a hundred small shards that find their way into crevasses in your teeth you didn't realize you had, and then when you try to pick it out from your teeth you get a sticky mess on your fingers that is seemingly impossible to get off. It is tree sap after all. All of this unpleasantness can easily be avoided if you just take it slow. https://media.tenor.com/4k0OWRkoWmkAAAAd/mr-bean-bean.gif Suck on it a little bit and chew gently until it softens up. If you are expecting modern chewing gum you will be sorely disappointed. You won't be blowing any bubbles with this stuff. If you are willing to lay aside your scruples you may just be rewarded. As you chew you might have a hard time stopping, but be careful not to over do it. At the end of my first night my jaw was pretty sore. The Flavor - It is herbal, pine-like, subtle yet complex, spicy, tangy. Similarities to frankincense and other resin based incenses are there. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but it can also seem to have very minimal flavor, it's hard to explain. It can be somewhat bitter, but you get used to it. As your taste buds get acquainted it becomes quite pleasurable. https://media.tenor.com/R9jCVrfViIsAAAAd/taste-test-matty-matheson.gif The Tingle - There is a peculiar numbing quality to it. I barley even noticed it until the first piece came out of my mouth after a couple hours of chewing. Not nearly as strong as something like tea tree, mint, or clove, but a pleasant warm and fuzzy feeling on the tongue and mouth. The vibrations continued to echo in my mouth for some time. https://media.tenor.com/sK0lgi0I4dkAAAAC/spidey-senses.gif The Warmth - Chewing starts out slow, but as time goes on the strength and frequency increases. I begin to compulsively chew harder and faster, and as this happens my mouth warms up. The warmth is certainly in part due to the gum's' piquancy, but it is more than that. The physical temperature rises. Since the gum is harder than modern chewing gum, as you chew it there is more friction. The kinetic energy is converted to thermal energy and pretty soon your mouth feels like it is curled up in an easy chair next the fire with a well-worn copy of the third volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. https://media.tenor.com/nsdDewuWdNMAAAAC/cozy.gif The Salivation - Whether the tears of Chios are a true sialogogue or merely mouthwatering I do not know, but I suspect the former. I can say that chewing leads to excessive salivation, which leads to more chewing, in tantalizing loop. Perhaps this is at least part of the reason for Mastic's reported healthy digestion promoting properties. https://media.tenor.com/-xzOoSVqd0YAAAAC/homer-simpsons-the-simpsons.gif The Hygiene - Just before bed at the end of the night, I have been second guessing myself. Did I already brush my teeth? Nope, they just feel clean from chewing the gum. Before mastic I had been chewing xylitol gum and it has a similar cleaning effect, but the mastic takes it to another level. I think it is a combination of the the chemical properties, the higher amount of friction due to the toughness of the gum, and the increased salivation. My wife told me that she hasn't noticed coffee breath or any halitosis since I began chewing the mastic. Wikipedia related this fun tidbit, "Ancient Jewish halachic sources indicate mastic as a treatment for bad breath: "Mastic is not chewed on Shabbat. When [is it forbidden to chew mastic on Shabbat]? When the intention is medicinal. If it is used for bad breath, it is permissible." The Longevity - With this stuff you might just become just like Violet Beauregarde who famously said, "I chew it all day, except at mealtimes when I stick it behind my ear." https://media.tenor.com/4eZWj_NrXPIAAAAd/violet-violet-beauregarde.gif With most gum, the flavor doesn't last long, and once it's gone all desire to chew also vanishes. Not so with Apollo. I can chew a piece for a couple hours, take a break and save the piece, come back to it the next day and chew it for a couple more hours with very little degradation in quality. You just need to take it slow when it is re-hydrating. I will still be chewing on one piece of mastic in the time it takes me to go through a whole pack of low quality gum. While the flavor does become less intense overtime i don't think it ever goes away completely. https://media.tenor.com/wqTNTAcZyEIAAAAC/energizer-bunny.gif Conclusion - The jury's still out on whether chewing this stuff will make my jaw resemble that of Apollo but I am thoroughly enjoying chewing it either way and recommend you give it a try for yourself. Once you've got a piece to munch on, kick back and relax while you dig a little deeper by checking out the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastic_(plant_resin) and watching a video about how it is cultivated https://youtu.be/F95jAZtVmFE?si=KulDFUUk2dcDAxG4